My Monologues 1
My Monologue with Nicodemus and Jesus
(John 3)
I have an instant liking for you, Oh, Honorable Judge, Nicodemus! I don’t know exactly why!
Being a Pharisee, you must have had a beard, and being advanced in age, most probably, your beard must have been silvery–gray, right?
So, in your facial appearance, and only in facial appearance, you remind me of my own father with his silvery beard!
May be, that is part of the reason for my instant liking for you!
But the more I read and more I reflect about you, my liking and appreciation for you goes far beyond your silvery beard!
Oh, Honorable Judge, you must have been a very hard working, very intelligent and a very scholarly person well versed in Jewish Law.
Yourself being a Pharisee, you must have been a part of the Core Group of the Jewish Religious Power and Authority. As a result you must have been revered and even feared.
You also must have been very earnest and meticulous in the observance of the Jewish Law. Being a member of the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Council of the Jewish Community, ordinary Jewish folks must have looked up to you for the dispensation of justice!
Your Office and position must have made you quite rich as well.
In a sense, you had everything a religious Jew could ever wish for and dream of! You had knowledge, power, pelf and position! Great!
Despite all these, Oh, Honorable Judge,
You seemed to have been missing something in life!
You were still searching! That’s why you met Jesus, right?
You must have heard of Jesus and might have listened to His discourses.
You might even have seen Him or met Him on previous occasions,right?
You might have heard of John the Baptist,right?
By the way, were you in that fact-finding delegation sent from Jerusalem to figure out the person and the preaching of John the Baptist?
Some think you might even have led the delegation.
In a sense, all these are irrelevant. What matters is, slowly and steadily you began to feel that the Carpenter’s Son had what you have been searching for, right?
I do admire you for admitting to yourself that something has been missing in your life, despite all that you have achieved and amassed.
How candid you are!
Just to share with you, Oh, Honorable Judge, it has been very difficult for me to admit to myself and to others about the meaninglessness and dryness I feel at times in my life.
I have been a Catholic priest for about forty years or so. And I have had further education abroad and have had a rather successful parish, teaching and counseling ministries.
All these have made me feel that I am one of those more favored priests in spite of my falls and failures which are big and small.
Yet deep inside me, like you, my Honorable Judge, I have often felt dry and empty.
But the worst part of it is that, often enough, either I have kept denying to myself and to others of my emptiness and unhappiness or I have kept blaming others for my woes.
But hardly, I owned them up as a self made mess.
I had better learn from you! O my Honorable Judge!
You remind me that the first step to growth is to admit that I need to grow!
I need to keep reminding myself that I need to seek help as you have sought it even though you were advanced in age!
Oh, Honorable Judge, you continue to be one of those rare persons who do not hesitate to descend from your powerful position to seek help!
You were senior to Jesus in every way: in age, in education, in authority, in status, in wealth and what not!
Yet you came out on your own to seek help from someone who is much junior to you not only in age but also in every other human aspect!
It shows that you felt the need to learn and you were ready for it. You climbed down from the seat of power just to seek a deeper meaning in life.
Some think, initially, you were a bit afraid and unsure and so sought Jesus under the cover of darkness of night. But it is quite possible that you were more prudent than a coward. It is equally possible that you preferred to meet Him at night so as to have an undisturbed meeting and an uninterrupted discussion. For whatever reasons,it matters little.
What matters is you did seek Him out.
Though you were considered to be a man of uprightness, you dared to approach Jesus who was treated as an upstart by the authorities!
I bow my head before you as you ventured out to meet Jesus who was half of your age!
Neither your advanced age nor your seniority nor your power-filled position, stopped you from addressing Him as Rabbi.
It does require a good measure of humility to call someone a Rabbi who could have been just as young as one of your sons.
In my case, it has been different and difficult.
Many a times, I have had real problems in accepting Authority Figures who were younger to me in age, even though they were more mature and had better brains!
Oh, Honorable Judge, let me share with you a part of my past.
In the initial years of priestly life, I was appointed a teacher and the vice rector of the minor seminary. Low and behold, a year later, a junior priest was appointed as rector bypassing me!
Oh, boy! Oh, boy! you should have seen me in those days!
I felt ignored and insulted, unjustly bypasses, treated and unappreciated.
And I was upset and angry for several months, if not years!
I just couldn’t bring myself to be under a junior priest! Later on, I might have put on a smile on my face, but deep within I was agonizingly upset! Often I had clashes with him even on flimsy grounds, but the real reason beneath had always been my reluctance to accept some one junior to me!
Oh, Honorable Judge, Nicodemus, you did just the opposite!
Thank you for reminding me of my past and to be sorry once again!
Though you were highly educated and you were an authority in Law and Religion, you sought the wisdom of Jesus who practically had no academic qualifications! In my case, whenever I had to deal with people with lesser or little academic qualification, I used to belittle them in my thoughts!
Here again your ways do inspire me! Thank you! I need to keep growing!
Though the Pharisees were intensely jealous of Jesus as they perceived Him to be a threat to their power and position, you did not feel threatened by Him. Rather, you felt drawn towards Him. You seemed to be a different sort of a Pharisee indeed!
You were not ashamed even to admit that you did not understand about being ‘born again’ in Water and in Spirit. With all the simplicity of a child you asked for explanation!
How eager you were, to learn! It seems you had neither a superior nor an inferior complex!
You were well on your way to healing and wholeness!
As I see, your age and ignorance melt away in the presence of Jesus,
It makes me really green with envy!
With all my complexes, I would not have done the way you did! I would have rather kept quiet about my ignorance and I would not have been willing to reveal it to anyone. I would have just pretended to have understood everything. In your eagerness to learn and to have the fullness of life you just blurted out your ignorance, right?
Oh, Honorable Judge, through your life and actions the world and me are once again kept reminded that neither riches, nor power, nor position, nor honor, nor academics would suffice to experience the lasting happiness and peace in life!
But the world, including myself, keeps forgetting it!
May your life and example continue to inspire me and many of us!
Oh, Honorable Judge, after you have sat and listened to Him in that meeting at night, later on, I see you standing up in broad daylight at the official meeting of the Sanhedrin and pleading for a just hearing for Jesus. You seemed to have been ‘born again’ in Water and in Spirit! Your association with Him is no more in the privacy of a dark night. Your relationship has grown up to be strong enough to be revealed in the broad daylight, in the official council of the Sanhedrin! You must have been aware of the negative consequences of your public pleading for Jesus. Yet you did it with courage regardless of inviting the retaliation of your fellow Pharisees, regardless of losing your position and power in the high echelons of Jewish Council of Sanhedrin.
That’s courage!
That’s commitment to Jesus.
That’s growth and transformation of an aging and elderly Pharisee.
You were prepared to forego the power and position which you had acquired over the years through hard work and study.
Your active presence to honor the lifeless body of Jesus and to give Him a decent burial show how sincere and committed you are to your new Master.
You could have told yourself,
“Sure, Jesus was totally a different sort of a Rabbi and had promised much, now that He is dead, why should I show up at the burial site and invite further wrath of the authorities. I could rather cut my losses by not showing up for the burial.”
You did not choose this option, but you chose the opposite.
You risked everything that you had acquired in life.
You did not go to the burial of Jesus as an onlooker.
You did not go empty handed.
You brought with you a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about a hundred kilogram.
Oh, Honorable Judge, You are an epitome of courage and commitment even at your advanced age. The death of Jesus brought you a New Life in Him.
In a sense as Jesus died, you too died to your old self and you were born again, right?
Jesus, my Lord, the way you handled Nicodemus and patiently led him to be ‘born again’ opens my eyes.
You gave him the due respect worthy of a member of Sanhedrin, the Supreme Jewish Council.
You could have chided him for being Pharisaic.
You could have challenged him to show guts and come in broad daylight.
You could have ridiculed his ignorance despite being a pundit in Jewish Law.
You could have accused him to be a spy and could have summarily dismissed him.
You did none of these!
You just won him over with your gentle, respectful and patient hearing!
Jesus my Lord, unlike You, in similar situations, whenever I got an opportunity with my opponents, I have taken out my revenge on them.
I have been mean and showed my pettiness.
I have demonized my rivals and opponents to my heart’s content!
I have tried to demolish their reputation.
Lord, that’s me, at times!
Your approach towards Nicodemus once again makes me aware of my own revenge-filled arrogance towards my opponents!
Lord Jesus, I know, You are there waiting for me as You did for Nicodemus!
I want to come to Thee and be ‘born again’ and again every day of my life!
So far, i have been doing all talking.
Now, i want to spend some time in silence and try to listen to You and to Nicodemus.
I am sure both of You have much to tell me..
help me to listen..
Amen
JoAchen
July12, 2014
PS
These Reflections are neither pure exegetical interpretations nor highly theological explanations. They are my devotional meditations mainly meant for my personal renewal and spiritual growth and thereby helping me to come closer to my God and to my fellow humans.
Thank you for reading them.
As I keep holding you in my daily prayers, I request you to include me in yours.
Thank you,
JoAchen
My Monologue with Nicodemus and Jesus
(John 3)
I have an instant liking for you, Oh, Honorable Judge, Nicodemus! I don’t know exactly why!
Being a Pharisee, you must have had a beard, and being advanced in age, most probably, your beard must have been silvery–gray, right?
So, in your facial appearance, and only in facial appearance, you remind me of my own father with his silvery beard!
May be, that is part of the reason for my instant liking for you!
But the more I read and more I reflect about you, my liking and appreciation for you goes far beyond your silvery beard!
Oh, Honorable Judge, you must have been a very hard working, very intelligent and a very scholarly person well versed in Jewish Law.
Yourself being a Pharisee, you must have been a part of the Core Group of the Jewish Religious Power and Authority. As a result you must have been revered and even feared.
You also must have been very earnest and meticulous in the observance of the Jewish Law. Being a member of the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Council of the Jewish Community, ordinary Jewish folks must have looked up to you for the dispensation of justice!
Your Office and position must have made you quite rich as well.
In a sense, you had everything a religious Jew could ever wish for and dream of! You had knowledge, power, pelf and position! Great!
Despite all these, Oh, Honorable Judge,
You seemed to have been missing something in life!
You were still searching! That’s why you met Jesus, right?
You must have heard of Jesus and might have listened to His discourses.
You might even have seen Him or met Him on previous occasions,right?
You might have heard of John the Baptist,right?
By the way, were you in that fact-finding delegation sent from Jerusalem to figure out the person and the preaching of John the Baptist?
Some think you might even have led the delegation.
In a sense, all these are irrelevant. What matters is, slowly and steadily you began to feel that the Carpenter’s Son had what you have been searching for, right?
I do admire you for admitting to yourself that something has been missing in your life, despite all that you have achieved and amassed.
How candid you are!
Just to share with you, Oh, Honorable Judge, it has been very difficult for me to admit to myself and to others about the meaninglessness and dryness I feel at times in my life.
I have been a Catholic priest for about forty years or so. And I have had further education abroad and have had a rather successful parish, teaching and counseling ministries.
All these have made me feel that I am one of those more favored priests in spite of my falls and failures which are big and small.
Yet deep inside me, like you, my Honorable Judge, I have often felt dry and empty.
But the worst part of it is that, often enough, either I have kept denying to myself and to others of my emptiness and unhappiness or I have kept blaming others for my woes.
But hardly, I owned them up as a self made mess.
I had better learn from you! O my Honorable Judge!
You remind me that the first step to growth is to admit that I need to grow!
I need to keep reminding myself that I need to seek help as you have sought it even though you were advanced in age!
Oh, Honorable Judge, you continue to be one of those rare persons who do not hesitate to descend from your powerful position to seek help!
You were senior to Jesus in every way: in age, in education, in authority, in status, in wealth and what not!
Yet you came out on your own to seek help from someone who is much junior to you not only in age but also in every other human aspect!
It shows that you felt the need to learn and you were ready for it. You climbed down from the seat of power just to seek a deeper meaning in life.
Some think, initially, you were a bit afraid and unsure and so sought Jesus under the cover of darkness of night. But it is quite possible that you were more prudent than a coward. It is equally possible that you preferred to meet Him at night so as to have an undisturbed meeting and an uninterrupted discussion. For whatever reasons,it matters little.
What matters is you did seek Him out.
Though you were considered to be a man of uprightness, you dared to approach Jesus who was treated as an upstart by the authorities!
I bow my head before you as you ventured out to meet Jesus who was half of your age!
Neither your advanced age nor your seniority nor your power-filled position, stopped you from addressing Him as Rabbi.
It does require a good measure of humility to call someone a Rabbi who could have been just as young as one of your sons.
In my case, it has been different and difficult.
Many a times, I have had real problems in accepting Authority Figures who were younger to me in age, even though they were more mature and had better brains!
Oh, Honorable Judge, let me share with you a part of my past.
In the initial years of priestly life, I was appointed a teacher and the vice rector of the minor seminary. Low and behold, a year later, a junior priest was appointed as rector bypassing me!
Oh, boy! Oh, boy! you should have seen me in those days!
I felt ignored and insulted, unjustly bypasses, treated and unappreciated.
And I was upset and angry for several months, if not years!
I just couldn’t bring myself to be under a junior priest! Later on, I might have put on a smile on my face, but deep within I was agonizingly upset! Often I had clashes with him even on flimsy grounds, but the real reason beneath had always been my reluctance to accept some one junior to me!
Oh, Honorable Judge, Nicodemus, you did just the opposite!
Thank you for reminding me of my past and to be sorry once again!
Though you were highly educated and you were an authority in Law and Religion, you sought the wisdom of Jesus who practically had no academic qualifications! In my case, whenever I had to deal with people with lesser or little academic qualification, I used to belittle them in my thoughts!
Here again your ways do inspire me! Thank you! I need to keep growing!
Though the Pharisees were intensely jealous of Jesus as they perceived Him to be a threat to their power and position, you did not feel threatened by Him. Rather, you felt drawn towards Him. You seemed to be a different sort of a Pharisee indeed!
You were not ashamed even to admit that you did not understand about being ‘born again’ in Water and in Spirit. With all the simplicity of a child you asked for explanation!
How eager you were, to learn! It seems you had neither a superior nor an inferior complex!
You were well on your way to healing and wholeness!
As I see, your age and ignorance melt away in the presence of Jesus,
It makes me really green with envy!
With all my complexes, I would not have done the way you did! I would have rather kept quiet about my ignorance and I would not have been willing to reveal it to anyone. I would have just pretended to have understood everything. In your eagerness to learn and to have the fullness of life you just blurted out your ignorance, right?
Oh, Honorable Judge, through your life and actions the world and me are once again kept reminded that neither riches, nor power, nor position, nor honor, nor academics would suffice to experience the lasting happiness and peace in life!
But the world, including myself, keeps forgetting it!
May your life and example continue to inspire me and many of us!
Oh, Honorable Judge, after you have sat and listened to Him in that meeting at night, later on, I see you standing up in broad daylight at the official meeting of the Sanhedrin and pleading for a just hearing for Jesus. You seemed to have been ‘born again’ in Water and in Spirit! Your association with Him is no more in the privacy of a dark night. Your relationship has grown up to be strong enough to be revealed in the broad daylight, in the official council of the Sanhedrin! You must have been aware of the negative consequences of your public pleading for Jesus. Yet you did it with courage regardless of inviting the retaliation of your fellow Pharisees, regardless of losing your position and power in the high echelons of Jewish Council of Sanhedrin.
That’s courage!
That’s commitment to Jesus.
That’s growth and transformation of an aging and elderly Pharisee.
You were prepared to forego the power and position which you had acquired over the years through hard work and study.
Your active presence to honor the lifeless body of Jesus and to give Him a decent burial show how sincere and committed you are to your new Master.
You could have told yourself,
“Sure, Jesus was totally a different sort of a Rabbi and had promised much, now that He is dead, why should I show up at the burial site and invite further wrath of the authorities. I could rather cut my losses by not showing up for the burial.”
You did not choose this option, but you chose the opposite.
You risked everything that you had acquired in life.
You did not go to the burial of Jesus as an onlooker.
You did not go empty handed.
You brought with you a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about a hundred kilogram.
Oh, Honorable Judge, You are an epitome of courage and commitment even at your advanced age. The death of Jesus brought you a New Life in Him.
In a sense as Jesus died, you too died to your old self and you were born again, right?
Jesus, my Lord, the way you handled Nicodemus and patiently led him to be ‘born again’ opens my eyes.
You gave him the due respect worthy of a member of Sanhedrin, the Supreme Jewish Council.
You could have chided him for being Pharisaic.
You could have challenged him to show guts and come in broad daylight.
You could have ridiculed his ignorance despite being a pundit in Jewish Law.
You could have accused him to be a spy and could have summarily dismissed him.
You did none of these!
You just won him over with your gentle, respectful and patient hearing!
Jesus my Lord, unlike You, in similar situations, whenever I got an opportunity with my opponents, I have taken out my revenge on them.
I have been mean and showed my pettiness.
I have demonized my rivals and opponents to my heart’s content!
I have tried to demolish their reputation.
Lord, that’s me, at times!
Your approach towards Nicodemus once again makes me aware of my own revenge-filled arrogance towards my opponents!
Lord Jesus, I know, You are there waiting for me as You did for Nicodemus!
I want to come to Thee and be ‘born again’ and again every day of my life!
So far, i have been doing all talking.
Now, i want to spend some time in silence and try to listen to You and to Nicodemus.
I am sure both of You have much to tell me..
help me to listen..
Amen
JoAchen
July12, 2014
PS
These Reflections are neither pure exegetical interpretations nor highly theological explanations. They are my devotional meditations mainly meant for my personal renewal and spiritual growth and thereby helping me to come closer to my God and to my fellow humans.
Thank you for reading them.
As I keep holding you in my daily prayers, I request you to include me in yours.
Thank you,
JoAchen
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